Sacrifices
by MissingMommy
Summary: The beginning of the end of Alice's life starts with a sacrifice and it ends with one. :: mild!FrankAlice, superhero!au


I'm the Harpies' Captain, season 6. I took inspiration from my Keeper's fic "Benjy-Man to the Rescue". Which screamed at me superhero!au.

So please enjoy this Avengers!au.

* * *

The day that changes the rest of her life started out normal, or as normal as can be when she's dancing from patient to patient without so much of a break in between. But this, this is what she was born to do—help people, heal them, make a difference.

Then the ground shakes a bit as she's wrapping a broken arm. It's nothing out of the ordinary; earthquakes happen in Sokovia intermittently, she's come to find during her time with Doctors without Borders.

The ground shakes again, harder.

Her patient, a young boy, looks up at her with fear in his eyes. She swallows against her own rising fear to reassure him. "We're fine. I'm almost done and then you can play. Wouldn't you like that?"

The boy nods wordlessly, and his mother grips his shoulder a little tighter as the plaster is finished.

She heads back towards the nurses station when she's done. She hears another patient through the door scream, "We need to do more tests. I do not trust you."

Ordinarily she'd stop and offer to be a fresh set of eyes, but today, she's too worried about the earthquakes. She's barely to the station when she demands, "What's going on?"

Mary, another volunteer, spins around when she approaches, her cinnamon-colored eyes wide and fearful. "The Avengers are fighting. Here."

Her mind races with the information. There's so many questions she wants to ask, but there isn't any time. She takes a brief moment to watch the aerial footage of Sokovia on the television before gathering a bag.

"What are you doing?" Mary demands, pulling at her arm.

"If the Avengers are here, it means there is trouble. Where there's trouble, there's injuries. I can't just stand by when I can help," she says passionately, shaking the other woman's hand off her arm.

"That's suicide and you know it, Alice," she exclaims.

Once upon a time, Alice would revel in the victory of Mary calling her by her first name, but it doesn't feel like a victory right now. She closes her eyes and inhales sharply. "I do, but I have to help these people."

The other woman nods her head solemnly. "Be careful out there."

Alice flashes a small smile before gathering her bag and rushing out the door and into the panic.

* * *

She wakes up slowly, groaning softly. The entire right side of her body aches with a fierceness she's never experienced before. It's far too quiet, she realizes. Her eyes snap open, expecting to see a battle torn Sokovia or, at the very least, the white walls of a hospital room; instead she sees a monochromatic room with the latest equipment.

"Ah, glad to see you're awake, Miss Burke. I'll alert Sir."

"Doctor Burke," she corrects instinctively as she looks around for who spoke. She sees nothing which she finds odd. "But I prefer my first name, if you please."

The door opens and James Potter, also known as Iron Man, comes strutting in, followed closely by a woman with sunshine hair and a man who is hunched in on himself; Alice recognizes the first as Scarlet Witch, but doesn't recognize the second. James starts tapping on the monitors, taking in the information.

She frowns. Never in her wildest dreams would she have guessed that she would ever meet the famous, playboy billionaire-turned-superhero. She thought that their paths would never cross.

He claps his hands as he turns to face Alice. "Alright, the data Dumbledore has collected has shown signs of irreversible damage to your right side. That's not really an—"

Her entire world tilts on its axis. Irreversible damage. Right side. Her heart pounds when she asks, "Come again?"

James opens his mouth to speak, but is cut off again, this time by his companion. "You'll have to excuse James here. He's never grasped the concept of bedside manners."

The man fiddles with the ends of his sleeves almost nervously, still hunched over as if he can make himself smaller. But he meets her eyes and, for a moment, Alice drowns in eyes that remind her of the bark on oak trees.

"Part of a building crushed most of the right side of your body," he explains softly. "We healed it, but it's never going to be the same. Not to say you won't regain mobility."

Alice looks down at her right side. There's a scar that look years old that runs from her biceps to her wrist and several smaller ones from her wrist to her hand. She lifts it up gently, watching as her arm shakes. Tears well in her eyes.

You can't do this to me, she growls at her body, refusing to rest her arm against the pillow. Even when it starts to ache. You can't betray me like this.

"Hurting yourself more isn't going to fix this," Scarlet Witch says, her words coated in a thick accent Alice can't place. Then the blood red magic Scarlet Witch is known for encompasses her arm and lays it gently against the pillow. "This is not the end of your life."

Everything seems to register at once—fear, pain, and anger claw at her throat. She blinks furiously against the tears, not wanting to cry in front of them. "I can't," she manages to say thickly. "It's too much to bear."

Scarlet Witch nods sympathetically, and the man claps James on the shoulder; James snaps his mouth closed.

"We understand. It's a lot to take in. Stay here as long as you'd like," he says.

When the three of them are gone, Alice dissolves into tears. She lifts the blanket to see that her right leg is in a similar condition to her arm. She's never going to be the same, even after physical therapy, and who knows how long that'll take. It only makes her cry harder. She can't help people when she's broken.

* * *

Two days later, Alice pants as she sits on her bed as she keeps pushing herself past her limit. The Avengers have left her mostly alone. The man with the long sweater and beautiful brown eyes—Frank Longbottom, she's come to know—visits her the most. There's a kindness in his voice when he requests that she get back into bed or that she eat the food he's brought with him. He doesn't seem bothered by her lack of responses.

She's fully expecting Frank when the door slides open automatically. Instead, she's greeted by Hawkeye.

He looks different without his bow and arrows, and his black costume. His mousy brown hair is balding a bit, which she would've never guessed. He sits a tray of food on her rolling table and takes a seat in the chair.

It's unexpected; Frank taps away on screens that are monitoring her vitals, and James whirls in at odd hours in a flash of grandeur before he's gone.

"I'm sure you know I'm Hawkeye, but when I'm not Avenging, I prefer Peter," he says after a long moment of eye contact. "You're Alice, right?"

"Whatever you're here to say, I don't want to hear it," she snaps. Sweat clings to her body and her right side aches with overexertion.

"What? Am I just supposed to leave you to your pity party?"

Alice glares at him, shocked by his accusation. "This isn't a pity party. You wouldn't understand. Your life just didn't completely change."

"Maybe not in the ways yours did, but I know a little about figuring out where life needs to take you when things changes," Peter says, leaning back and relaxing.

Despite all the publicity the Avengers get, most of them keep their lives private as can be. She doesn't know anything about Hawkeye—Peter, she corrects herself—beyond his skill with a bow and arrows; hell, she didn't even know his name.

"What would you suggest?"

He shrugs, surveying her with a critical eye. "You can either let this break you or you can let this make you stronger."

She lets out a wet laugh. She gestures to her right side as she says, "I don't see how I'm supposed to do the second option."

"Dorcas—I'm sorry, Scarlet Witch can help you, if you want it," he replies. "She's certain that she can teach you to wield magic like she does."

"Come again?"

He gives her a sheepish smile. "I should probably let her tell you. She'd explain it better than I can. When she's trained you, there will be a spot in the Avengers for you."

She frowns. "Just like that? What's the catch?"

"It's clear that you want to protect everyone, even if it means sacrificing yourself. We all know a little about that," he says. He stands and gestures to the tray. "You should eat. I don't believe that your training will be easy; you'll need the energy."

When Peter leaves, Alice looks towards her plate. There really isn't any harm in at least giving it a shot, she supposes.

* * *

Alice gathers the energy in the world around her, pushing it through her right leg, and takes a step forward. And then another. She takes a third before the energy gives out and she's falling.

Dorcas is lightning fast, catching Alice before she falls to the floor. She helps Alice to the chair a few steps away. Her room is just as sleek as the hospital room had been, only with a far more comfortable bed, and basically an entire suite. It's plenty of space to do Dorcas' version of physical therapy.

She drinks greedily from the bottle Dorcas fetched her, the liquid cold on her tongue. She wipes away the sweat gathered on her brow. "Did you know that I could do this when you saved me?"

"No, I didn't know. I hoped though. I felt the potential in you," she replies. "And you've exceeded any and all expectations I had for you."

Alice takes a deep breath in, gathering herself. Then she uses the energy flowing within herself and in the world around her. When she has enough energy, she lets the world guide her through the motions. Gold follows her motions. Dorcas tries to karate chop the gold threads, that are so similar to her blood red magic, held between Alice's hands. It fails.

She feels herself smile. Three months ago, she didn't even think she would walk. But here she is, doing everything she thought wouldn't be possible. The sky seems to be her only limit.

"Just keep practicing walking," Dorcas orders. "It's just like everything else—you need to build stamina."

She snorts. "That's obvious." Then she bites her lip. "When I talked with Peter, not long after everything happened, he mentioned there would be a spot on the Avengers for me. Is that true?"

Dorcas nods once. "When you have the energy to walk and use your magic at the same time, you will be allowed to go on missions. It's going to take a bit of time, though. You're still pretty far from that."

Alice takes another gulp of the water. "Clearly. But I'll get there."

Being an Avenger seems more like a reality to her now than it did at the beginning.

* * *

There's a groan from the man in front of her, shifting from a giant green man into his normal appearance. Two years ago, when she met him in the room of James Potter's personal hospital, she would've never guessed that Frank could be holding back the Hulk. And even seeing it for the first time seems unbelievable.

It takes Frank several moments to realize she's sitting there, waiting for him. He's halfway through pulling on the clothes she left for him when he stops. "I—why are you here?"

Alice, who's averted her eyes the moment he started shrinking, meets his eyes. "Because it seems lonely for you to transform back by yourself."

In the years she's spent healing and building stamina, she's never seen or hear of the other Avengers waiting for the Hulk to melt away into Frank. It doesn't sit right with her.

"Why aren't you afraid of me like the others are?"

Alice frowns. "What is there to be afraid of? All I've ever seen you do is do anything and everything possible to help people. And while Hulk is a part of you, it's not all of you. I think it takes guts to be as gentle and kind as you are when people think you're a monster."

He gives her a look that is incomprehensible. He fiddles with the ends of his sweater. He's quiet for a long time until she finally gives in and asks why.

He gives her a smile as he stands. "Would you like help back to the quinjet?"

It's not an answer, and she knows she's not going to get one. She takes his proffered hand to stand. She gathers energy and pushes it through her body and urges herself to walk. Frank isn't far behind her as they make their way to the quinjet. She can feel something indescribable shift between them.

The flight back to the Tower is a happy one. The team had secured the time stone; a stone that can rip holes in the very fabric of the universe. In the wrong hands, it can be very dangerous.

* * *

Years later, Alice uses the energy of the time stone to take a look into time, looking for a way to stop Voldemort from killing most people when it shows her life instead. She watches the moment that changed it forever and her lips turn up.

She may not have been able to continue on being a doctor, but there are so many lives she saved because of Dorcas, because of Peter, because of James, but most importantly, because of Frank. The universe had led her to Frank, she's sure of it.

I love that you outshine the morning sun, she thinks briefly before she pushes through the stone's ability. Show me how to protect him, protect them all.

And the stone does. The cost will be her life. It's a small sacrifice to make to protect Earth. This is why she became a doctor in the first place, and then trained to become a superhero when she could no longer heal.

I will wait for you, my love, she thinks to herself as she tells the others of the plan.

* * *

Character Appreciation: 15. (Trait) Courageous

Shannon's Showcase: 7. (AU) Superhero

Book Club: Tik Tok - (occupation) Healer, (trait) selfless, (word) protect

Showtime: 17. (pairing) Alice/Frank

Amber's Attic: het, 4 - FrankAlice

Buttons: D3 - "You outshine the morning sun.", W4 - Shot

Lyrics: 33. As long as I'm alive, swear to God you'll never feel so helpless.

Ami's Audio: 2. Write about someone who goes by an alias.

Sophie's Shelf: vault 11 - (word) Sacrifice

Angel's Arcade: Namine - (color) white, (word set) dream, witch, reality, (dialogue) "I didn't know. I hoped."

Lo's Lowdown: C1 - colour: blood red.

Bex's Biscuits: [word] Accusation, [Emotion] Lonely, [AU] Avengers (extra 10 point bonus for this pls write me a thing)

World Cup: Healer!au

Hamilton: 16. (occupation) Healer, optional - 7. (character) Alice Longbottom

Southern: maze - (dialogue) "You can't do this to me"

Eastern: Circus - [Dialogue] "We need to do more tests. I do not trust you.", [Word] Healing, [Emotion] Fear, [Colour] Red, [AU] Hospital, [Action] Crying

Canada: 2. "It's too much to bear."

Days: Superman Day: Write a superhero!AU

Colors: Cinnamon

Birthstones: Ruby - (dialogue) "It takes guts to be as gentle and kind as you are."

Musicals: 15. write about someone not sure where their life is going

365: 107. "Why aren't you afraid of me?"

Insane: 530. Action - Getting hurt


End file.
